by Martha Flumenbaum, from The Huffington Post
Animal agriculture is a bigger cause of global warming than cars. You’d be better off driving a Hummer than eating a steak.
Eating too much meat can cause heart disease and cancer.
Factory farms cause pollution and the people who live near them are getting asthma.
Animals on factory farms never see the sun or touch the earth.
The animals that we eat are being fed so many antibiotics, that at this rate, in the future, antibiotics are not going to work on us.
Adult women who drink milk are 3 times more likely to have twins than women who don’t. Why is this? Because the cows are being fed so many hormones.
Care about world hunger? For every calorie we eat of meat, we are wasting 6 to 26 calories because instead of grass, we are feeding the animals corn and soy.
Not to mention the damage we are doing to the environment for the average amount of miles it takes us to ship our food to our supermarket. It would be like going from New York to Texas for dinner every night.
Care about animal cruelty?
The turkeys that we buy at the supermarket are so genetically altered that they can’t even physically sexually reproduce.
The chickens that we buy at the supermarket are so genetically altered that they cannot even physically walk.
Chickens in nature live for ten years. We kill them at 38 to 41 days.
They are kept in crates piled 18 high in dark rooms with no light and their cages are never cleaned.
The crates are so close together that their beaks are cut off to prevent them from cannibalizing each other.
99% of animals are on factory farms. There are family farms that treat animals humanely but family farms could not feed all of Staten Island; let alone the world.
Just a few facts I learned last night at the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan’s program “Who Knew Food Could Be So Fraught?” with uber-downer Jonathan Safran Foer.
Ugh. Vegetarians are so depressing.
So, what’s the answer?
For Foer, the answer is simple. Stop eating meat.
But what? Why?
How can you tell me that I can’t have turkey at Thanksgiving? A hotdog at a baseball game? A barbeque for the Fourth of July? My mother’s brisket at Passover? Chicken soup when I have the flu?
All right, all right, all right.
You don’t have to become a vegetarian. It’s okay.
But do we have to eat meat so much?
We eat 150 times as much chicken as we did 80 years ago.
Maybe keep the chicken soup but don’t eat chicken nuggets in your car.
A little more apples, a little less Applebee’s. Keep the chili but lose the Chili’s. Have a burger but don’t have Burger King. It’s disposable eating so let’s dispose of it.
If you can’t cut meat out of your diet, cut down, cut back.
Don’t buy ground beef for a dollar at Wal-Mart. Don’t go to McDonalds.
Do meatless Mondays.
If you eat meat three times a day, try eating meat twice a day, or once a day, or a few times a week, or once a week.
Not everyone can quit eating meat but most people can cut back on it at least a little bit and make a difference.
So, let’s jump on the bandwagon here, folks. Because the other wagon seems to be filled with tortured animals, heart disease, cancer, asthma, pollution, floods, more hurricane Katrinas, melting polar ice caps, and the inability to use antibiotics.
And that sounds like a major downer.
____________________
Breakfast: Bean & soy cheese taco (with an authentic San Antonio tortilla… mmm)
Lunch: Veggie wrap with avocado, cucumber, carrots, lettuce, sprouts, and black olives
Dinner: Vegetarian gyro (made with seasoned seitan) from The Greek Spot
5 comments
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Wendy (The Local Cook) says:
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 6:57 am (UTC -5)
I totally agree, we eat too much meat. Switch to organic grassfed, humanely raised meat and you will naturally eat less because it costs so much ;-) Plus it’s so much better for you.
One of the things I’ve learned by cooking through Simply in Season is that meat should be viewed as a side dish – you can do so many interesting things with vegetables! Sometimes I’ll make a vegetarian meal and not even realize it was vegetarian until we’re halfway through dinner.
Wendy (The Local Cook)´s last blog ..Fenn Valley Wine Dinner Review
Judi Lipsett says:
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 11:36 am (UTC -5)
(Ben’s mom)
Angie, I love your blog, although I can’t look at the pictures. What I don’t understand is why the trendiest restaurants –especially in California — are moving towards MORE meat on the menu instead of less. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/04/food/la-fo-0304-calcook-20100304
Powered By Produce says:
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 1:42 pm (UTC -5)
I’m so glad you like the blog!!
You mentioned that you can’t look at the pictures on this blog (and that is to your credit). Sadly, in the article you linked to, it says that instead of being disgusted by the sawing up of the entire pig, people crowd in closer to watch. It’s like our society has lost its appreciation for life, especially the life of farm animals. It’s really very sad.
Powered By Produce says:
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 1:54 pm (UTC -5)
We are so rooted in tradition and habit that it is often hard to imagine meat as (gasp!) a side dish. We are just so used to it being the “main” dish.
It amazes me that with all we know now about how dangerous the overconsuption of meat is for our health, and how our society over-consumes meat more than any other society (and not-so-coincidentally has the highest incidences of cancer, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes), people still rely on habit and tradition to plan their meals.
Rob says:
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 4:23 pm (UTC -5)
My wife and I have increasingly been doing meals like Spanish tapas, or Chinese banquets… in other words, multiple little courses rather than the traditional enormous entree and side. This keeps our consumption of any one thing down, and the meals are more interesting this way.